Daily Dispatch 08/14/14

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Bad Boys 3

It’s time to get Marcus Burnett and Mike Lowrey back on the beat. Martin Lawrence was on Conan last night and dropped that he recently spoke with producer Jerry Bruckheimer and that work is moving forward on a Bad Boys 3 script and that “it all looks good.” We’ve been waiting for a third installment to the franchise for years, but busy schedules and bad timing have kept it on the back burner. Locking down names like Will Smith, Bruckheimer and Michael Bay is never easy and locking them all down for the same project is a nightmare.

The original movie came out in 1995 and Bad Boys 2 only came out in 2003, so if they knock out production soon they’ll at least be fairly consistent. Let’s hope they get started before Will Smith has the idea to cast his son, Jaden, as his new rookie partner. [SlashFilm]

Ferguson

Things just keeping worse in Missouri. Police dressed in full military gear have used tear gas, rubber bullets, armored personal carriers and LRADs (acoustic weapons) against crowds. Police have been widely criticized for indiscriminately targeting everyone and anyone. There have been reports that news trucks and reports were specifically targeted and that media was ordered to stop filming/covering the event.

Two journalists, Wesley Lowery of the Washington Post and Ryan Reilly of the Huffington Post, were arrested by police for not leaving a McDonald’s fast enough.

Missouri governor Jay Nixon has been widely condemned for not addressing the situation (he was active on social media yesterday, tweeting about his meet and greets). The White House also screwed up by mentioning a party which the President and First Lady attended, describing with the phrase, “A good time was had by all.” As you can imagine, that came back to bite them.

Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice

Spoilers! Want to know how DC’s cornerstone movie will end? GeekTyrant recently spoke with an extra who was on set for about 10 days and saw/found out some major details about the plot. I’ll warn you again: Spoilers ahead.

According to the extra, the ending of the film has already been filmed. One of the scenes shot featured Batman breaking into Lexcorp to steal kryptonite, and apparently Lexcorp had somehow gotten ahold of General Zod's body.

BadAssDigest confirmed this and added that Lexcorp has been collecting pieces of the World Engine; has synthesized kyptonite and will somehow turn Zod’s body into Doomsday — the villain who kills Superman in the comics.

While I’m skeptical about using an extra who was briefly working on a few scenes in an action movie as a reliable source, this all sounds like a perfectly reasonable plot.

Lower Wages

While almost 9 million more people have jobs today compared to when the economy bottomed-out in 2008, those jobs pay, on average, a whopping 23% less than pre-recession jobs. Unless, of course, you’re rich. The rich are increasing their share of the nation’s overall income with the top 5% gaining the most. These numbers were from a report released this week by the United States Conference of Mayors. The income gap between the rich and the poor is growing, growing quickly and will continue to do so unless we do something to change the status quo.

“The inequality crisis facing our cities is a threat to our fundamental American values. Reducing income inequality and ensuring opportunity for all is nothing less than the challenge of our times.” said New York City Mayor and Chair of the Mayors’ Cities of Opportunity Task Force Bill de Blasio.

Super Fruit

Apples that don’t brown? Bananas full of vitamins? These aren’t the genetically modified organisms (GMOs) that you’re used to. Most of the GMOs that you see people complaining about on your Facebook feed are foods that have been altered using foreign genetic material. New super fruits described by Italian researchers in Trends in Biotechnology wouldn’t have anything extra added — their own genome would be slightly tweaked to, say, increase Vitamin A production.

That’s probably easier for people to swallow than a tomato with flounder genes. While the GMO debate will rage on, this new technique might help bridge the divide between the two sides. [ScienceDaily]